Friday, May 26, 2017 5:11 PM

Use Facebook to Comment on this Post

Wednesday, May 24, 2017 9:49 PM

Excerpt from PM Netanyahu’s Remarks at the Event Marking 50 Years since the Liberation and Unification of Jerusalem

(Communicated by the Prime Minister’s Media Adviser)

Special Knesset Session for Jerusalem Day!

Following is an excerpt from remarks Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made, this evening (Wednesday, 24 May 2017), at Ammunition Hill in Jerusalem, at the event marking 50 years since the liberation and unification of Jerusalem:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, today, at the state memorial ceremony marking 50 years since the Six Day War, at Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem:“We have just finished the visit of US President Donald Trump, the president of our greatest ally. The US has promised to maintain Israel’s qualitative advantage in the Middle East. Three days ago, the US added another $75 million to the aid package for the missile defense program. While we very much appreciate the assistance and support, I would like to reiterate: History has proven that Israel’s security depends on our readiness and our ability to defend ourselves by ourselves against any threat.”

Photo: Kobi Gideon, GPO

Use Facebook to Comment on this Post

Sunday, May 7, 2017 5:00 PM

UNITED WITH ISRAEL has been over time been collecting signatures on-line for “Keep Jerusalem United” right now we have over 513,000 names and still counting. We are in the process of getting all these names into a very nice book with a professional fancy logo. UWI will be presenting this book to Mayor Nir Barkat on May 17th!! We’re hoping to present one of the books to President Trump & Prime Minister Netanyahu as well. Your Signature will be in the book if you sign the declaration!!

Thursday, April 6, 2017 4:47 AM

The Die is Cast – Julius Caesar

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party, along with Muslim Brotherhood Operative, Member of Parliament, Iqra Khlaid, successfully passed a motion against “Islamophobia” although 73% of Canadians did not want it to be put forward. Most did not want this motion to pass due to the ambiguity of the word Islamophobia and the abuses many can see coming because of it. Trudeau’s camp also deceptively conflated Islamophobia and racism within the motion causing further concern since Islam is not a race and made the assertion that systemic racism exists in Canada. These assertions are lies and smears against the Canadian public.

Trudeau and Khalid have stuck to their Muslim Brotherhood strategy of using psychological warfare on their opponents, the Canadian citizenry. The hunt for Islamophobes within the Canadian populace will commence even though statistics don’t bear out Khalid’s claim that Muslims get the brunt of hate crimes in Canada. Like a true Sharia Law supremacist, she won’t let the facts stand in her way.

Motion M103: Islamic Word Salad & Gaslighting

That, in the opinion of the House, the government should:

recognize the need to quell the increasing public climate of hate and fear;

condemn Islamophobia and all forms of systemic racism and religious discrimination take note of House of Commons’ petition e-411 and the issues raised by it; and (c) request that the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage undertake a study on how the government could

(i) develop a whole-of-government approach to reducing or eliminating systemic racism and religious discrimination including Islamophobia, in Canada, while ensuring a community-centered focus with a holistic response through evidence-based policy-making

This motion was like Obamacare, it had to pass for us to see what was in it. Khalid has invoked the Standing Committee of Canadian Heritage to start tracking down Islamophobes within Canada. If “Islamophobia” is widespread within Canada then many are asking, why are Illegal Muslim migrants crashing our borders to get into Canada? Surely if we are so Islamophobic wouldn’t Muslim groups be warning their members to stay away? And, if systemic racism is rampant how did a Pakistani Muslim get elected to Canadian Parliament and is able to pass a seditious motion that undermines Canadian Law? Given the savage & horrific Jihad attacks all over the world, on innocent civilians, isn’t a climate of fear of Islamic Jihad understandable?

This motion and the psychological warfare being waged on decent Canadians has created the desired result. Average citizens have become fearful and worried that if they speak out against the Imams within Canada calling for the death of Jews or if parents speak of their concern regarding Islamic Prayer in schools, will they be put in this report, being compiled by Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage and be a victim of the “whole-of-government approach to reducing or eliminating systemic racism and religious discrimination including Islamophobia, in Canada, while ensuring a community-centered focus with a holistic response through evidence-based policy-making?” Whatever that means.

Interestingly enough, Iqra Khalid’s motion is very similar to the Blasphemy Laws from her home country of Pakistan.

If Canadians are to be quelled, what will this mean? In Khalid’s home country of Pakistan and other parts of the world where Sharia Blasphemy Laws are in place, death is the penalty. Is that where we are headed in Canada? Or will the Blasphemer lose their job, get jail time and some kind of re-education? Canadians don’t know and that is the point of what the ambiguous wording in the motion is meant to do, scare us into conformity and silence.The next question Canadians need to be asking is, how is it that a foreign born Muslim Brotherhood operative can be in Parliament putting forward seditious motions that will potentially lead to the implementation of Blasphemy Laws in Canada?

Use Facebook to Comment on this Post

Saturday, March 18, 2017 8:38 AM

According to Haaretz

Archaeologists Uncover Life of Luxury in 2,000-year-old Priestly Quarters of Jerusalem

Luxuries, like a bathtub, signal that the 2000-year old house being dug up in Mt. Zion, near Caiaphas’ home, belonged to a member of the ruling class.Philippe Bohstrom Jul 12, 2016 4:55 PM

A bird’s eye view of the Mt. Zion excavation, as seen from the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, July 2016. Kevin Caldwell

Archaeologists excavating in the heart of ancient Jerusalem have begun to uncover the neighborhood that housed the elite 2,000 years ago – most probably the priestly ruling class.One of the houses had its own cistern, a mikveh (a Jewish ritual bathing pool), a barrel-vaulted ceiling and a chamber with three bread ovens.Inside a room found with its ceiling intact was a bathtub – an extremely rare luxury that commoners of the time could not afford.

Bathtubs, as opposed to ritual dipping pools, have so far only been found at King Herod’s palaces in Masada and Jericho, and in the so-called “Priestly Mansion” in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem.“It’s clear from the finds that the people living here were wealthy, aristocrats or perhaps even priests,” Prof. Shimon Gibson, co-director of the excavations, told Haaretz.

The bathtub found on Mt. Zion, carved out of the bedrock. It had been covered by a stone brick roof that remained intact these 2,000 years. Credit: Zion Excavation

A ritual stone cup with a priestly inscription, used for purification rituals, also found there supports the archaeologist’s theory that this area was the Priestly Quarter of ancient Jerusalem.

“Caiaphas’ house has been located. It’s up on the hill not far from our site,” Gibson points out in additional support of the thesis.“We know from pilgrim reports that Caiaphas’s house was in this area. The Armenian site is just up the hill from our site, the Roman Catholic site Peter Gallicanu is just below,” Prof. James Tabor of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte told Haaretz. “Caiaphas was the son-in-law of Annas, who had six sons who where high priests. He ran the show for about 60 years putting his sons in one after the other, and his son-in-law, Caiaphas along the way. So perhaps these are the homes of that extended priestly dynasty,” Tabor said.The high priests at that time were notorious, with a reputation for being corrupt, brutal and greedy. We learn this not only from the Gospel accounts but from Talmudic texts telling how the high priest used to beat the people with sticks (Pesachim 57a, Pp.284-285). Josephus gives us a similarly grim account, coining the high priest a “hoarder of money” (Josephus – Antiquities of the Jews 20.9.2-4: “But as for the high priest, Ananias, he increased in glory every day, and this to a great degree, and had obtained the favor and esteem of the citizens in a signal manner; for he was a great hoarder up of money”).

Shimon Gibson (left) and James Tabor of UNC Charlotte are leaders of the Mt. Zion excavation.Lori Woodall

One highly unusual discovery is murex shells, 13 of them – the largest number ever found in the ruins of first-century Jerusalem.Murex, a genus of Mediterranean sea snail, were highly valued in Roman times because of the rich purple and turquoise dye that could be extracted from the living creature. Since it is highly unlikely that live snails were brought from the coast to be “milked” in Jerusalem, Gibson postulates that the dye came from the coast in vials that were marked by shells.“On the outside of the bottle containing dye they tied the shell so that you would know from which shell the dye was extracted. Like we put markers on our boxes today,” Gibson explains.

The murex shell found on Mt. Zion, from whose secretions, blue-purple dye could be prepared.Mt. Zion Excavation

Herod – greater than God?

The location of the newly discovered quarters, right at the old city center immediately southeast of the palace of Herod the Great, supports the theory that these houses belonged to extremely prominent people. Herod is famous for having rebuilt Jerusalem, profoundly reshaping the urban landscape. Most notable is the construction of his grand palace on the northern side of Mt Zion in 25 BCE. It would be during this construction blitz that the new neighborhood now found would have gone up.The extraordinarily grandiose buildings with towers, gates, barracks and magnificent gardens were all part of the Herodian propaganda endeavor. In fact, Gibson discovered that the floor level of Herod´s palace was higher than God’s temple on the opposite hill, which made him speculate about Herod’s perception of himself.“It seems like Herod saw himself a bit higher then God,” the archaeologist observes.

Attractive neighborhood, or garbage dump

Mikveh at Mt. Zion site, Jerusalem.Shimon Gibson

It bears noting that the neighborhood had been populated long before Herod entered the stage. Archaeological evidence of occupation dates back to the 8th century BCE, a time the city was expanding to the west, into Mount Zion. Remains of the city walls that were built around the new city as well as pottery from that earlier time been unearthed during previous excavations.After the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 587 B.C.E, the neighborhood was abandoned. When it was settled again is an open question.Massive amounts of pottery dating to the 5th century BCE were found during the recent excavations, which has sparked some controversy. Some feel it to be evidence that the area was inhabited. Others say it’s remnants – i.e., garbage.Gibson remains more cautious. “The problems is that with so much rubbish, you have to imagine people living in the City of David coming up to Mount Zion to scatter their rubbish up there. It seems like it’s a lot of hard work.”

Rebels going underground

Other discoveries are directly connected with the final hours of the Jewish rebellion against the Romans in year 70 CE.At the bottom of the residence’s large, 9-meter deep cistern, the excavators found cooking pots and the remains of an oven.

Drone view of Mt. Zion site, Jerusalem, 2015Joel Kramer

“When we started clearing it we found a lot of debris inside, which included substantial numbers of animal bones and then right at the bottom we came across a number of vessels, which seemed to be sitting on the floor – cooking pots and bits of an oven as well,” Gibson said.He speculates that these might be the remnants of a kitchen in use by Jews hiding from the Romans – their last resort was to go into these cisterns.A certain John, a leader of the rebels, along with his brother Simon, were found starved to death in the cisterns and water systems that ran under the city, according to the Roman-Jewish historian Titus Flavius Josephus, Gibson points out. Over 2000 bodies were found in the various underground chambers, most dead from starvation (Josephus, War 6:429-433).

Use Facebook to Comment on this Post

Saturday, March 18, 2017 6:43 AM

PM Netanyahu’s Remarks at the Start of the Weekly Cabinet Meeting

(Communicated by the Prime Minister’s Media Adviser)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this morning (Thursday, 16 March 2017), at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting, made the following remarks:

“This afternoon I will meet again with President Trump’s envoy, Jason Greenblatt. We are in the midst of a process of dialogue with the White House and our intention is to reach an agreed-upon policy regarding settlement construction. Agreed-upon for us, of course, not just for the American side. Naturally, this will be good for the State of Israel since we have not been in these processes for many years. To the residents of Amona, I reiterate: I gave you a promise to build a new community and I will honor that commitment.

On Sunday I am going to China together with five ministers. The visit is at the invitation of the Chinese President and it marks 25 years of diplomatic relations between China and Israel. I will meet with the Chinese President and Prime Minister and, of course, the ministers will meet with their counterparts. I will also meet with the heads of the biggest corporations in China and today, when we say the biggest corporations in China, we sometimes say the biggest corporations in the world, or which are quickly becoming the biggest in the world. We will continue the talks on establishing a free trade agreement between China and Israel and we will hold the third joint Israel-China innovation conference. Of course we are continuing to develop new markets and to open new markets for the Israeli economy. I expect all ministers to cooperate on this, and they are doing so.

Last week I held an additional meeting with Russian President Putin and we mainly discussed issues related to Iran’s attempt to establish itself in Syria militarily, including the construction of an Iranian seaport in Syria. We also presented Iran’s continuing attempt to transfer war material, including among the most advanced, to Hezbollah via Syria. We also discussed economic issues. There was an important development when President Putin finally announced that the problem of the veterans would be resolved, which follows on the solution to the pensions problem. I think that this is important news. There were also additional agreements in agriculture, adoption and a free trade area. Minister Zeev Elkin will brief us on this.

Israel is in a period of diplomatic progress. Not all of the problems have been solved and this is not to say that the countries agree with us on everything. But the great continuity of meetings, also with the leaders of the world’s major powers and the meetings with leaders who come here on a daily basis – yesterday I met with the President of Bosnia and the Foreign Minister of Italy in one day, and this is typical; and the ministers who also hold meetings here and abroad – show that Israel is becoming a global power in knowledge and technology, and is becoming an important element in the international arena.”